In the coastal town of Greystones, Ireland, parents have quietly agreed to hold back on giving their children smartphones until they reach secondary school — a voluntary pact that has captured attention across the Irish Sea. The initiative, called "It Takes A Village", is led by the local school principal, who argues that a collective approach makes it easier for families to resist pressure. On the latest episode of BBC World Service's Tech Life, presenter Shiona McCallum heard from both the principal and a local parent about how the agreement works in practice.
The programme, produced by Tom Quinn, explored the broader impact of screen time on younger children — a subject that resonates with many UK families debating when to hand a child their first device. While the Greystones pact is not legally binding, its existence signals a growing anxiety around smartphone use among primary-age children.
“Greystones parents agree to wait until secondary school to give children smartphones.”
Elsewhere in the episode, a woman described how surviving a late-night attack inspired her to create a wearable safety device. And, in a separate experiment in Sweden, an AI system was turned loose to run a cafe — with mixed results, according to the programme.
The Greystones model offers no official guidelines, but it gives parents a practical option: wait together, rather than wait alone. For UK listeners, it may be the closest thing to a roadmap yet.